1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly, to an access control method and device for machine type communication in a wireless communication network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Machine Type Communication (MTC) is currently being discussed in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) forum and the requirements for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) architecture have already been specified.
Further, a contention-based Random Access CHannel (RACH) procedure allows a large User Equipment (UE) population to use a limited number of RACH preambles to access the wireless communication network. However, when considering M2M devices, there is still a problem with a large number of Machine-Type Communication (MTC) devices accessing the wireless communication network at the same time.
Accordingly, the RACH capacity in a wireless communication network, such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network (GERAN) is a critical problem that should be solved in order to support a large number of devices in a GERAN cell.
One conventional solution uses a smart metering application that requires the MTC devices to send their data around the same time, e.g., every hour or during a limited time period during off peak hours. However, having such an application can result in a situation where a large number of MTC devices are trying to access the GERAN network at the same time. Such a phenomenon can be a disaster for normal legacy users, as the RACH resources would be effectively wiped out. Further, even the MTC devices may suffer from RACH failures due to successive contention failure.